Yizkor

Speech by Bezalel Rosenblum (Zalke) at the meeting of Zaromber in Tel-Aviv,
Eretz-Israel on September 2, 1946

Friends and Colleagues!

We have gathered this evening from all over this country. For a long time, we
dreamed about a get-together of all the Zaromber in Eretz-Israel but never
hoped for a gathering such as we have here today. The tragic fate of our people
demanded that this meeting be a memorial for our dear parents, brothers and
sisters, childhood friends, friends and relatives who were so tragically killed
by the cursed Germans and their helpers.

All that was so near and dear to us and what is etched so deeply in our
memories and in our souls, no longer exist. Our dear shtetele with its beloved
Jewish mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters and little children, is no
more. Gone is the shtetele, which was full of Jewish life, which strove for a
better, and more secure future. Zaromb was a shtetl of dreamers and fighters, a
shtetl always struggling to eke out a living and striving for a better life,
both economically and culturally. Our shtetl was different in many ways and,
according to my view, better than other shtetlekh. It is not only local
patriotism, which makes me say this. We had no really wealthy men in Zaromb as
in other shtetlekh but we never let anyone go hungry. There were almost no
illiterates in Zaromb. Every Jewish child went to cheder. The same strivings
which pushed our parents to enrich their cultural and spiritual life through
the synagogue, the Chassidic prayer-houses, the study groups who pored over
Gemorah, Mishnah and the Psalms, etc. - that same striving, but in the context
of the new times, led the younger generation on the various paths of the modern
Jewish cultural life, led by the political parties and youth organizations.
Each had its own ideals but worked hard and pooled their energies as the
extensive library efforts show. Our shtetl had the reputation in the region as
a town of socially aware youths who, through their own efforts, had reached
into the sources of knowledge.

Our shtetl excelled with the characteristic of assuming responsibility for
mutual assistance. The concept of "Kol Israel Khaverim Zeh V'zeh"
(guaranteed aid for all Jews) was one of the outstanding characteristics of our
shtetl life. How many children and also adults who were sick were helped and
saved because of the mutual caring and help! The community chest from which
anyone could borrow was devotedly administered by the older and younger
generations, by the orthodox and the freethinkers working together. There were
no "Yakhsonim" (people of special privilege) in Zaromb. The Rabbi's
daughter was a good friend of a shoemaker's daughter.

Dear friends, permit me to honor the memory of our dear friend, Shmuel-Leyb
Ruskolenker, whose efforts and encouragement brought us to Israel, but he
himself did not live to come here. Let his fine and noble Jewish soul remain
etched in our hearts and may his memory be blessed!
Of the survivors of Zaromb, Velvl Olshak, is here with us today. He will tell
us what he saw with his own eyes and what he himself experienced. I want to
wish him that he rapidly establish roots here in Eretz Israel and begin to feel
like one of the builders of this land and, together with us, help welcome the
rest of the Jewish survivors. May they not be forgotten!

[Page 7]

Destruction of Zaromb

by Z. Shaykowski (Shavke Fridman)

I.

Zaromb (Zaremby-Koscielne) also listed as Zaremby, is a small shtetl on
the
road between Warsaw and Bialystock. It is slightly to the side between
the
train stations of Malkin and Tzizshev, seventeen kilometers from
the
countryseat of Ostrove. Other shtetlekh near Zaromb are Malkin, Brok,
Komorova,
Nis and Yendzsheve.

For many years Zaromb was a little village surrounded by forest. It was
because
of the forests that the village got the name "Zaremby". Of
the dozen
or so villages named Zaremby, our Zaremby-Koscielne was the largest. Among the
Poles and in the surrounding area, our town was known
mainly for its two large churches, which gave it the second part of its
name, Kotchelne.

One could get to Zaromb from the roads, which led to Ostrove, Malkin
and Tsizshev. There were no good roads connecting Zaromb with the rest of the
area,
which is why our shtetl was always in dire economic straits. There was
no
railroad station; the closest one was in Malkin. In 1922, finally, the
train
made a stop near Ishtchinek, a village only a few kilometers from Zaromb. The
new train station was named Zaremby-Kotchelne. It was now easier
to reach the town, but materials still had to be transported by horse-drawn
carts the few
kilometers from the town itself to the railroad station.

On three sides, Zaromb was surrounded by the Brok River, a tributary of
the Brotchisko, which flowed from beyond Tsizshev. The river flowed past the
new
cemetery in a wide valley which, on the northeastern part of the shtetl,
was
called "the Redenes" (the speeches). That name came from the
time of
the 1905 Revolution when the youth of Zaromb gathered there to make
and listen
to speeches. The only bridge over the river was just north of
the
"Redenes." Across the river is the village Yineltes. Then the
river
flows to the village Brekves and then over a small falls into a swampy
area.
Then it flows past the villages of Kosed and Diageloo where it joins
the Brok
close to where the Brok flows into the Breg.

II.

It is hard to know for certain how old Zaromb is and when Jews first
settled there.

Yankl Bergman and Mordecai, Yokl Stolier's son, had found a gravestone in
the
old cemetery dated 1681. The stone was buried two feet below the surface
in the
second row of graves. Perhaps the cemetery was even older than that.
According
to a census in 1764, there were 113 Jews over one year of age
living in Zaromb.
That means that, including infants, there must have been
about 125. There were
25 families of whom 17 lived in their own houses and 8
were tenants. The 17
houses did not belong to the Jews who lived there but to
estates belonging to
some "Pritzim" (feudal landowners) and to the
priest of Zaromb. Four Pritzim, the wealthiest of whom was Simon Zaremba,
owned 12 of the houses and
the priest owned 5. Of the 25 Jewish families, 4
are listed as tailors, 1
furrier and hat maker, and one servant. Some were
involved in commerce of one
kind or another and no occupation at all is
listed for 7 of the families. Among
the single individuals, 3 men are listed
as barmen in the local taverns, 2 valets, a servant girl and a tailor's
apprentice.

At that time, Zaromb belonged to the Vengrav community. There were also
7
Jewish families, 32 persons, who lived in the nearby villages. Five were
tenant farmers, one had a tavern and one is listed as a tailor. (We thank Dr.
Raphael
Mahler for the information on the 1764 census.)

Even until 1939, parts of the land on which Jewish houses stood belonged to
a
few Pritzim. However, this was, by then, more tradition than fact and
the
Pritzim did not collect any rent money. There had been lawsuits over
land
ownership but around 1900 all the legal papers were destroyed. This is
how that happened: there had been a court in Zaromb for many, many years
which was going
to be transferred to another city. This did not please the
Jews of Zaromb
because the court brought peasants into the shtetl, who, once there, bought from
the Jewish shopkeepers. At the time, all the legal papers
were already loaded
on a wagon, ready to be taken to the other city when a
Jewish woman set the
cart on fire. The woman spent only a few months in jail
and court remained in Zaromb.

III.

Zaromb was completely destroyed by the 19141918 war. On retreating
from
Zaromb in 1914, the Russian army burned down the town. Some Jews managed
to
salvage some of their belongings, but the majority lost everything. The
Jews of
Zaromb had to start all over again from scratch. For a while, some
Zarombers
lived in the nearby villages and shtetlech, but by 1917, most
Zaromber Jews had returned. They bought small wooden houses from the German
army and erected them
in front of their burned down homes. It took a number
of years before the old
houses were rebuilt and the makeshift houses removed.
But many remained living
in those small wooden houses until World War II.
Some ruins of the burned out
houses were never removed; the basement of the
old synagogue survived the fire.
The Zaromber rebuilt only the new synagogue
and left the ruins of the old one.
The "shammes" (sexton) built
himself a little house among those ruins.

In 1920, during the Polish-Bolshevik war, Polish soldiers planned to make
a
pogrom in Zaromb. Fortunately, they had to leave the town in a hurry, but
they
satisfied their need for a victory by shooting Jews in Malkin and
Zeistes.
These seven victims were buried in the Zaromb cemetery. Many
Zaromber risked
their lives to bring these martyrs back to Zaromb for proper burial.
Dr. Shlomo Kleynplatz, the Rabbi of Malkin, performed the rites.
In Zaromb itself, the Polish soldiers robbed several Jewish houses and raped
some Jewish women. This is how the age of Polish independence was ushered
into Zaromb.

According to the 1921 census, there were 207 homes and 15 other buildings
in Zaromb. The Zaromb district encompassed 48 shtetlekh villages with
6,528 inhabitants, of whom 4,916 were Catholics, 1,591 Jews, and the rest
Russian
Orthodox. 5,035 listed their nationality as Polish; 3 as white Russian, and
1,479 as Jews. Jews lived in only 15 of the 48 communities. Most
of the Jews
lived in Zaromb proper (1,254 Jews and 372 Catholics). The second
largest
Jewish community was in Zaystes where 181 of the 282 inhabitants were
Jews. In Ostrove, the largest town in the region, there were 13,425
inhabitants, of whom
6,812 were Jews.

In the years after 1921, the Jewish population in Zaromb did not grow
because
many people, especially the young, moved to the large cities of
Poland, or even
out of the country in hopes of a chance to make a living.
Before war broke out
in 1939, there were more Zaromber Jews in the United States, Palestine,
Argentina, Cuba and France and in Warsaw and other large
Polish cities, than in
Zaromb itself.

IV.

The lives of the older generation centered around the synagogue and the
prayer houses. After the First World War, the communal and cultural life of
the
younger generation developed -- there were groups belonging to
various
political parties and factions, but the greatest activity was
concentrated
around the Jewish library.

Zaromb also had a Jewish children's library which was founded in 1921 by
the
children themselves to prevent Polonization. At that time, the
Polish-Jewish
"Folkshul" non-religious school contained about 100
Polish children's books. The children of the fourth class, especially Shayke
Fridman, Beyle
Burstein, Freydke Burstein and Brayntche Fridman, demanded
from their teacher
that Yiddish books also be bought. The teacher did not
want to give in, so the
children decided to create their own children's
library of only Yiddish books.
The first money they raised for this project
came from a Chanukah concert.
During the first years, the library was located
in private homes; later, they
occupied a corner in the older library

The Zaromber Jews were always quite poor. Even the so-called rich men
were
never rich enough to send their children off to the big cities for
their education. In 1920, Berl Fridman, the son of Chaym-Yankel, the
iceman,
"discovered" the Religious Teacher's Seminary at 9 Genshe
Street in Warsaw. The beauty of the seminary was that it was tuition- free
and, in the
cellar of the seminary building, there was a dormitory were one
could get a
place to sleep for no charge. With a little "protection
money", one
could also get a free meal each day. So, Berl Fridman went
there to study and
soon other boys from Zaromb followed - Ayzshe Ruspelenker,
Moyshe Migdal,
Shayke Fridman, and some others. A few girls from Zaromb also
went to Warsaw to study, but they hungered more than they studied and had to
come back home

V .

Every Wednesday was market day in Zaromb. The market was small but was a
very
important source of income. A few times a year there was a
larger
"Yarid" (fair)

In 1930, the Poles began a campaign to ruin the economic opportunities for
the
Jews of Zaromb and finally they achieved their goal. In the last 6-7
years
before the outbreak of war in 1939, life for the Jews of Zaromb was a
constant struggle.

In a report issued by the "Joint" (Joint Distribution
Committee)
published June 28, 1938, the conditions in Zaromb are described as
follows

"The events in the Bialystock district had a very bad effect on
the
conditions of the Jews of Zaromb. The local 'Nara' members - local
criminals
and young wealthy peasants - carried on terrorist activities which
prevented
Jewish merchants from coming to the marketplace. Where, until a few
months ago
there was not a single Christian merchant, now no Jew feels he can
dare show
up. Also, because of the terrorist actions in the surrounding
shtetlekh and villages, many Jewish merchants and artisans there have lost
any chance to earn
a livelihood. Even now, when the situation has become a
bit better in some
areas of the Bialystock district, the terror in Zaromb is
as harsh as ever."

A pogrom in the neighboring shtetl of Tchizshev in 1936 strongly affected
the
economic life of Zaromb. As soon as the perpetrators of that pogrom
were released, they joined anti-Semites from Zaromb to terrorize the Zaromber
Jews.
The administration of the Zaromb "Kehillah" (Jewish community) sent
the following call for help to the Jewish press in Poland:

"The town of Zaromb-Kotchelne and its 250 families are doomed because
of
the boycott agitation activities carried out by the released 'Tchizshev
Martyrs' and the Nara leaders in the neighborhood. Not a single
Christian
customer will buy from a Jew. No peasants come into the shtetl at
all during
the week except on Wednesday, which is market day. It would be
better for the
Jews if the market would be eliminated altogether. On Wednesdays, the Jews
close their shops and hang curtains over their windows.
They post guards by
their back doors and are afraid their shops will be
broken into and looted,
that they themselves will be pulled out of their shops, lifted high in the air
by the jubilant crowds and then get beaten up.
Such incidents happen often in Zaromb. They provoke incidents and then beat
up Jewish merchants; they sing
anti-Semitic songs, step on the feet of anyone
standing on the steps of Jewish stores, etc."

"Last market-day, they made up the story that a
certain
manufacturer-merchant wanted to shoot at them while they were
dragging an 80
year old Christian woman from his shop. Complaints to the
local authorities
have led nowhere. Soon not a single Jewish shop will dare
to open on market days. Jews dare not show up in any of the villages for the
Nara boys beat up
any Jew they see, with sticks and stones. Those who
depended on trade with the
villages are now completely wiped out. The
situation in our shtetl is now hopeless. Help is crucially needed."

In a second announcement in the press, the Zaromb Kehillah stated that
Jews
from Zaromb were not being permitted to travel to the markets in other
cities.

"When the poor merchants don't obey and take their meager merchandise to
a 'Yarid', they are attacked and beaten on their return. That is when Yehuda
Leib Granan, G. Golshak, Pinkhus Balender, Chayim Veisbord, Eliohu Stern,
Shimshon
Zshutchik and Leybl Hersh and Motl Holshak were beaten with cudgels.
Even 14
year-old Leybl Weisbrod was not spared despite his pleas to be
allowed to live.
The local government does what it can to prevent these incidents: 4 hooligans
were arrested, put in chains and sent to Ostrove. At
the last Yarid, extra
police were sent from Bialystock. But the economic
situation of the Jewish
population is so uncertain, Jews are selling their
shops to Christians for
pennies and leaving the shtetl. Almost 90% of the
Jewish families suffer from
hunger and from the cold. Children go to school
hungry and in tatters."

Hershke Levin, the glazier, who used to go to the villages, fell victim to
the Poles. In a letter to the Zaromb relief Committee in New York, his widow
wrote,
on November 21, 1937:

"Going to the village Ketlanka one day, my husband was attacked by
a
frenzied bunch of Poles who beat him murderously. He came home, barely
alive
and had to be confined to bed. I sold everything to try to save him. I
even had
to sell our one cow to pay the doctors. When my husband got a little
better, he
got out of bed before he was ready to. The poverty in our home
upset him so
much that he went off to the Village Gancherova, hoping to earn
a few 'groshen.' He used to buy some fish there and then bring it to the city
to sell. But, as soon as he came to the water, a band of
"shkotzim" (young gentile men) tried to throw him into the
water. Miraculously, he was
able to get away from them and run toward home. When he
came home, his illness returned, even worse than before. Since he had no more
money, the town took up
a collection to pay for him to go to a Warsaw doctor.
Unfortunately his
condition got worse each day and he died, leaving me and
the children orphaned,
and the empty walls and no means of livelihood."

"Shkotzim" so terrorized Yehuda Berl Dzshize, the village
peddler,
that he lost his mind.

A letter to the New York relief committee from the Zaromb Kehillah,
dated
October 3, 1938, describes the assault on the grain merchant Berish
Klaymer, by
some Poles. He was one of Zaromb's richest Jews until the Poles
forbid him from
buying grain from the peasants. He was attacked and beaten
near the village
Maintove and died shortly afterwards. His widow and 3
orphans gradually sold
all their possessions and when there was nothing left
to sell had to come to
the relief committee for charity. But Zaromb had
become so poor that there was
no money left to assist anyone in need and that
left only one alternative - to
appeal to the "landsleit" in
America.

At first groups of Poles blocked the doors to Jewish shops only on.
Wednesday,
the market days, but later they did it every day.

The Poles had an organized campaign to take over Jewish homes and the
boycott
of the Jewish shops was their primary weapon.

In a letter from Zaromb to the New York Relief Committee, February 10, 1938,
it
was reported that almost all the houses on the market square had already
been
bought by Poles.

If the boycott were not bad enough, a terrible fire broke out on May 15,
1938
and 69 people lost all their belongings and their homes. It turned out
that the
fire was no accident -- that Poles lent a hand to cause this tragedy. Among the
destroyed buildings was the one where the community- chest
and loan
organization had been housed. That was the primary target of the Poles.

One night, 20 Jewish graves were desecrated.

On July 17, 1937, the administrators of the Yiddish Library wrote a
letter
which told that because of the dire situation in the shtetl, there was
the
opinion that the proposed new building should not be constructed because
many
felt they would soon have to leave Zaromb. However, the majority decided
that
because of the troubles the cultural center should be built to help
bring
courage and hope to the young people during this crisis, to keep up
their morale.

Of the 230 Jewish families in Zaromb, 197 had to borrow money from
the
"Gmiles Khesed" (fund which provided interest-free loans)
between
April 1, 1937 to March 31, 1938.

A report from the "Joint" on June 28, 1938 reported "90% of
the
Jewish population of Zaromb are noted to receive assistance and the other
10%
barely earn enough to cover expenses. Of the 230 Jewish families in
Zaromb, 150
did not have Matzoh for Pesakh In many instances the Jews
are forced by
poverty to sell their houses and shops."

Zaromb had many oil presses, which were owned by Jews. They produced oil
mainly
for the peasants. Because of the boycott, this means of earning was
also eliminated. The Jews could not buy the materials to make the oil because
no one
would give them the necessary credit.

Only 2 stocking factories, which employed 12 workers during the season,
were
unaffected by the boycott because they did not work for the local market. A
wool factory, which reworked old wool into new fabrics, had to shut
down.
Credit was denied to the Jewish artisans. The 15-20 fur and hat makers
who
worked for the peasants were left without a means of earning a living.
The 4
windmills got less and less grain from the peasants. The one electric
mill was
attacked by the Poles.

At the start of the war in September 1939, the Germans remained in Zaromb
for
only two weeks. During that time, their activities were limited to
beating up Jews, robbing them and dragging them off for slave labor. They
were preparing
to get instructions from Germany about chasing all the Jews
out of the shtetl
but had no time to carry out their plan because after only
2 weeks of German occupation, due to conditions set down in the Russo-German
pact, Zaromb went to
the Russians.

The border between the Russian-held and German areas was not far from
Zaromb.
It went along the Dreg River near the villages of Rostik, Daniluka
Festskes and Zaromb. The Russian border guards closest to Zaromb were in the
small village
of Koser.

Being so close to the border, tens of thousands of Jews trying to escape
from
those parts of Poland now under German occupation stole across the
border and
went through Zaromb. Many lost their lives at the guns of the
German border
guards. Once those who made through reached Zaromb, they could
breathe easier,
but only for a short time. Soon it became much harder to
cross the border
because the Soviets did not want to let in any more
refugees. For a time,
thousands of Jews remained in the narrow strip of land
between the German and
Russian borders. Once a mass of thousands of refugees
moved toward the Russian
border with a red flag and a picture of Stalin,
which they had been given by a
youth group in Zaromb. They were determined to
get through by force of numbers.

The youth of Zaromb did whatever they could to help the refugees. They
even
sent telegrams to the Soviet government and they helped
refugees
"steal" the border.

In Koser, Jews from Zaromb waited to give refugees first aid and food.
The
refugees were not permitted to remain in Zaromb for any length of time.
They
were forced to move on the long road from which so many never came
back.

The Jews who illegally crossed the border came into Zaromb on foot. The
few
Jewish cart owners who still had horses went back and forth from the
shtetl to
the border to bring back the refugees. Despite being economically
ruined
themselves, the Zaromber tried to help the refugees in any way they
could.
There was a decree that no one was to take a refugee into their home
overnight
but the decree was ignored whenever possible. Most of the refugees
slept in the
synagogue or outside and would be on their way again in the
morning. Most
succeeded in boarding the train near Ishtchenika. Others
continued on foot to
Tchizshev. The forests around the train station of
Ishtchenika were full of
refugees who slept under the trees.

Khava Keyman of Shtchetchin, who went through Zaromb in October 1939, gave
an
eyewitness account of how the shtetl looked at that time.

"The shtetl is tiny, with people like grains of sand. Mostly they
are
strangers here with packs, backpacks and valises. We approach an inn on
the
market square. It is in a low, light-colored little house. The inn is
packed
with refugees drinking something warm. The windows are full of people
looking
out. Many stood by the little bridges to speak to the new arrivals
and offer
them something warm to eat and drink. They sighed together, the
local people
tried to console the newcomers and helped them find a place to
sleep."

"I and another young woman went to see the rabbi, a middle-aged Jews
with
a brown beard. Around his table sat his own 7 children. At another
table, there
were at least 3 times as many. We were greeted with a warm
'Sholem-Aleckhem'
and given a blessing for our continued journey."

"We found the synagogue. As we opened the door, we were almost overcome
by
the dank heavy air from within. In every corner groups of people were
lying on
their packages and sacks. Their little iron stoves smoked more than
they
burned. Pots and kettles stood on these. Women and children were trying
to warm
their hands. Children were crying; old people were sighing, moaning.
A few men
were standing around. I felt a strong pang in my heart observing
this picture
of Jewish poverty, homelessness, hopelessness, hunger and cold.
More and more
people kept arriving. Some young men and women from the shtetl
came in to
converse with the refugees."

"The exhausted people huddled together for warmth waiting for dawn.
Then
they took their belongings and headed for the train. At the station,
they found
hundreds of others who had been waiting there from the previous
day. It was
impossible to get into the small station house. It began to rain.
Rain poured
on the people and on their packages. As if by spite, the rain
did not let up
all day and still no train arrived. The people were wet,
hungry, cold, tired
and discouraged. Many were crying."

The Zaromb cemetery was rapidly filled with graves of refugees killed trying
to
cross the border and who knows how many Jews drowned in the Dreg which
was
particularly stormy in this region, or died in the Orlov and Sodov
forests and
in the villages around Zaromb? Those poor souls never had a
proper Jewish
burial.

During the Russian occupation, the cultural and community life in Zaromb
was
administered by a committee: Chaim Mayer Faynztak, Leyzer Levin,
Leytche
Fridman, Eliohu Pravde and Rokhel Dishke. The Polish shoemaker,
Vishilitzki,
worked with them.

For a while in 1929, there were some Jews who had come into Zaromb and then
to
other parts of Soviet-occupied Poland who, for various reasons, found
living
under Soviet occupation unbearable and they crossed the border,
usually
illegally, back into German-occupied Poland.

Letters were also smuggled through Zaromb.

VII.

At the very beginning of the German attack on Russia, Zaromb was attacked.
The
night of June 21, 1941, at 2:00 A.M., the Germans began killing Jews in
Zaromb.
Misha Vaysberg, Froyim Platzker and his wife, Motl Weintraub's son,
Itzl
Gleszer's daughter, Froyim Apel's 3 children, Henekh Shtriknmakher's
grandson
and others were among the first victims. These are listed in a
letter sent by
A. Lerman who figured that about 20 Zaromber Jews were killed
that night.
According to Pina Alshok, over 100 Jews in Zaromb were killed
that night.
Zaromb was set afire and almost the entire town burned down.

The Russian army had dug trenches and put up concrete fortifications all
around
Zaromb. During the long hours of that first night, the Russians put
up
resistance to the attack. According to one eyewitness, the Germans forced
Poles
to approach the fortifications and throw in grenades, which contained
some sort
of choking gas.

Later the Germans forced the Jews to take out the bodies of the dead
Russian
solders and throw them in a large pit.

After taking Zaromb, the Germans decreed that a "Judenrat"
(Jewish
council) be established to be elected by the Jews themselves. The
members of
the Judenrat were Levi Kilevitch, Kusher, Shiye Byale and
Shmuel-Lib
Ruskelenker.

During the first few weeks, the Germans confiscated all that the
Jews
possessed. Each day a stated amount of food, clothing and money had to
be
handed over. Each day Jews were taken for slave labor. During those
early
weeks, Zaromb was still the border administratively, which made the
situation
even more difficult.

A few weeks after occupying Zaromb, the Germans began killing the Jews in
the
surrounding shtetlekh but, at the time, the Jews in Zaromb were not aware
of
what was happening. Even when they heard that Jews from Yendzshev or
Siminev
were taken into the forest, they did not know why and for what
purposes they
were taken. About 7 weeks after Zaromb was occupied, the Jews
there found out
that 300 Jews from Tshuzshev were taken away for slave labor
and the rest were
shot in the forest near the villages of Mianvek and Sember
(Szulborze), which
were between Zaromb and Tshizshev. According to one
eyewitness, Jews from
Malkin and Yendzshev were also shot there. The Jews of
Zaromb did not know
about this mass murder.

However, we now know for certain that the Poles in Zaromb did know about
the
massacre but were careful not to tell the Jews, so that the Jews would
not try
to run away when it was Zaromb's turn to rid itself of its Jewish
population.

Suddenly the Poles saw a chance to realize, with the help of the Germans,
their
old dream of getting rid of the Jews of Zaromb. They were impatient
that the
Germans were not doing that immediately. During the first weeks of
the
occupation, some Poles sent a request to the Germans to chase all the
Jews out
of Zaromb. Among those who signed this request were the entire
Polish
"intelligentsia" of Zaromb: Pisanski, the teacher
Pavelchack, the
secretary of the local council Geraltowski, and others.
Geraltowski, Bek and
Dr. Gauze went around gathering signatures for their
petition to force the Jews
out of Zaromb. All of this was done secretly, so
the Jews did not know of this
until much later.

VIII.

Ten weeks after it was occupied, Zaromb's Jewish community was destroyed
and
the Jewish population killed. From available eyewitnesses, we learned
these
particulars:

The German Command center for the region was in Tchizshev. On the 29th
of
August, 1941, they sent an order to the Zaromb Judenrat that all the Jews
of
Zaromb must move to Tchizshev by the morning of September 2. A ghetto was
to be
set up Tchizshev for the Jews of all the surrounding shtetlekh. Yekhial
Kus, in
an eyewitness report, told that through a Pole, a good acquaintance
of his who
worked for the Gestapo, he found out about the massacre of the
Jews of the
surrounding shtetlekh. He went to Zaromb and told the Judenrat
there about what
he learned but they did not believe him.

Even on the day on which the Zaromb Jews were to present themselves
in
Tchizshev, Yekhail Kus reports, some reports were optimistic. Some Jews
were
even glad that the Germans were making a ghetto in Tchizshev because
then they
would have only one enemy to deal with, the Germans, and would no
longer have
to suffer from their neighbors, the Poles. Some Zaromb Jews
thought living in a
ghetto controlled by the Germans would be less
troublesome than life in Zaromb
with the Poles.

The Jews of Zaromb were not an exception in thinking this way. The Jews
of
Kovna had asked the Germans to establish a ghetto. Mindl Alshok told that
the
members of the Zaromb Judenrat had heard about the massacres,
particularly
about the murder of Tchizshev Jews. That is why they were afraid
to go to
Tchizshev.

Collecting the money and jewelry which the Jews of Zaromb had managed to
hide,
they took this to the German commissar in Tchizshev with the hope that
this
bribe would make him establish a ghetto for the Jews of Zaromb in
Zaromb
itself. He took the money and the jewelry but rejected their
request.

According to Mindl Olshok, the Zaromb Polish council knew for a full
week
before August 29 what was planned for the Jews of Zaromb - that there
would not
be a ghetto in Tchizshev but that all the Jews of Zaromb would be
killed. But
the Poles kept their knowledge a secret to prevent any Jews from
trying to
escape and save their lives.

As we saw later, the Poles took an active part in the massacre of the Jews
of
Zaromb. Several days before, a number of Polish cart drivers had been
given
orders to be ready to transport the "Zshides" (derogatory
term for
Jews) of Zaromb. They kept that order secret.

What the Zaromb Jews did not know yet was that the Germans already had
plans
for organizing the death camp of Treblinka, right near Malkin. Many
years
earlier, during the Rebellion of 1863, Poles fought against Russian
forces in
the forests. It was often told that when the Russians captured a
Pole, they cut
off an arm or a leg. The wounded Poles dragged themselves to
Zaromb where Jews
healed their wounds with sour milk. Not far from Zaromb, on
the way to
Danilvke, there is a Christian cemetery where Polish victims of
those battles
are buried. In that region, which is a very beautiful one,
nature-wise, the
Germans built gas chambers for Jews. That is why they
decided to wipe out the
Jewish communities in that area as quickly as
possible. This included Zaromb.

On Saturday, August 29, 1941, 30 young men from Zaromb met in
Rozshinski's
house. Mindl Alshok, the only one of the 30 who survived,
described the meeting:

"We felt that we had 2 days left to live. One thing we promised each
other
 whoever lived through Hitler's horrors should tell friends
outside of
Poland what we felt and what we said." She stated that among
those present
who agitated against the Jews going to Tchizshev were
Shmuel-Lib Ruskelenker
and Khinke Alshok.

IX.

At dawn on September 2, 1941, the German and Polish police led the Jews
of
Zaromb to Sember. That little village is between Zaromb and Tchizshev.
Gestapo
men were waiting in Sember. The Polish cart drivers left for
Tchizshev with
whatever the Jews of Zaromb had brought with them and the Jews
were all led
into the Sember schoolhouse.

The first few carts carrying Jews had gone through Sember and toward
Tchizshev
so as not to arouse the suspicions of the others on their way to
Sember. Later,
these few wagons full of Jews were sent back to Sember.

Moyshe Veintroyb tells that some of the Jews were murdered by Poles almost
as
soon as they were out of Zaromb. Among these was Yankev Gzshibovitch who
was
murdered by the Poles near the old Jewish cemetery.

A few Jews managed to hide in the attic of the Sember schoolhouse. Among
them
were Braynche Kusher's son and Itzl Katzve's wife. The Polish
policeman
Batenski, noticed Kulevitz and his son trying to climb up to the
attic so he
pulled them down and broke their legs. Among the Poles who played
an active
role in the massacre were Bodtchak and Zshad. Many Poles stood all
around and
kept beating the Jews. Those Jews who tried to escape were shot.
Among those
shot by the Poles while trying to run were Khava Shedletzki,
Rokhel Smala and
Mayer Raykhman and his wife.

Once all the Jews had been herded together inside and round the
Sember
schoolhouse, a German made a speech. He explained that Jews wanted to
destroy
Germany so now the Jews must perish. Using revolvers, the Germans
forced the
Jews to applaud the speech and the announcement that they were to
be killed.

From the Sember schoolhouse, the Jews were loaded into trucks and taken
to
Mianowek, another small village near Sember. The Russians had begun
building a
narrow railway track here but had not completed it. According to
one
eyewitness, the Russians had been building anti-tank ditches and not
a
railway-. That is where the Germans had murdered the Jews from Tchizshev
and
other shtetlekh and there, on September 2, 1941, they murdered the Jews
of
Zaromb. Moyshe Krishtal managed to hide behind some trees where he
witnessed
the slaughter. (Later, Moyshe Krishtal was killed by the Germans.)
Mayer
Raykhman threw himself on a German officer and bit him on the neck.
Saynay, the
"shokhet" (ritual slaughterer) said Vedui (final
confession of sins)
with the Jews. The son-in-law of the capmaker shouted:
"Jews! Let's attack
these bandits and run away!" But nobody
succeeded in running.

The martyrs of Zaromb were shot in groups of 70 people. One group then
buried
the previously shot group. The last 70 martyrs were buried by Poles.
Mindl
Alshok tells that Abraham Khanowitch, who looked like a strong man, was
forced
to throw live Jews into the pit. Moyshe Veintroyb tells: "Many
fell into
the pit out of fear, even before they were shot. Children under 12
were not
shot but pierced with bayonets. During the slaughter, Polish police
beat the
Jews on their heads with heavy cudgels." He also said.
"When the pit
was covered up, the earth heaved and rose. Blood from our
Jews came up above
the earth covering the mass grave." A Polish woman
who was watching this
slaughter went out of her mind.

X.

After the massacre near Sember, only 200 Zaromber Jews who had not gone
to
Sember remained alive. Some of them were living in villages outside of
Zaronb.
They stayed mainly in the forests, moving from one place to another
and from
one ghetto to another -- Warsaw, Kossove, Sterdin. Most went to the
Tchekhenov
Ghetto from which they were sent to their death in Treblinka on
November 2,
1942. Only Mindl Alshok and her sister miraculously escaped from
the Tchekhenov
Ghetto during the night.

In 1942, the Germans set up a slave labor camp near Zaromb for the Jews of
the
Bialostok Ghetto who had not been murdered. There were about 16,000
slave
laborers there. A few Zaromber, Malka Shif and her two children were
there for
a time. In January, 1943, the camp was liquidated and all the Jews
who were
there were transported to the Auschwitz death camp.

Latche Levkovitz from Zaytses, who was originally from Zaromb led a
partisan
group in the forests around Bialystok in 1941. She died in an
attack.

A significant number of those who remained alive after the massacre
were
murdered by Poles or were handed over by Poles to the Germans. Among
these were
Shlomo and Talbe Tenshe, Motl Migdal, Mordecai-Mendl Yigdal,
Khaytche
Ruzshanski, Khaya Goldberg and her son, Yashke Grappe and his wife
and others.

On the way to Sember, the wagon, which carried Shmuel Leyb, Khayim Shteper
and
others, broke down. They ran off and saved their lives. They found out
about
the massacre of the Zaromb Jews so they ran to Starodin. About 20 Jews
from
Zaromb gathered there. This whole group hid out in the forest where they
ate
mainly tree bark. They stayed in the forest for about a month. Then
Poles
reported them to the Germans and on September 28, 1942, they were all
shot in
the village of Tzekhonov, between Kasov and Starodin. The mass grave
of this
group of Jews from Zaromb is at the roadway at the foot of the hill
in
Tzekhonov.

Sheyne-Libe Burshtin, her husband and a child managed to hide for a time
but
were then reported to the Germans by a Pole.

When Zaromb was liberated, there were 14 Jews in the region who had by
a
miracle survived. They were Shayke Grinspan's family, Ziporah Goldberg and
one
child, Tzipe Goldberg, one of Graff's children, Nathan Kavaltchud's
child
(Rashke-Libe's grandchild) . The liberated Poles however did not stop
killing
Jews. So after surviving the long German occupation, Shayke Grinspan
and Shlomo
Tentche were shot and murdered
by
Poles.

Mindl Altshok tells that near Zaromb there was a kind Pole who helped her
and
her 3 sisters to hide. When the Soviet army returned to Zaromb, other
Poles
found out that this man had sheltered Jews and they killed him.

Dobe Kovaltchik was hidden by the Pole Adam Katcharowski. The Poles of
Zaromb
wanted to kill him but he ran off to Germany where he is living with
Jewish
refugees. A telegram from the "ITAY" on July 13, 1946 states
that
Poles stopped a train near Zaromb and murdered 6 Jewish passengers.

Graffe, a Jew from Otrove, visited Zaromb at the end of 1945. He reports that
a
Polish policeman said to him, a smile on his face: "There are no
more
'Zshides' in Zaromb."

Only 2 Jewish children from Zaromb remained alive. Miriam Graff, Yankl
Graff's
(Watermaker) grandchild, who had been hidden by a Christian woman,
and a child
of Tziporah and Leyble Veintroyb. After lengthy negotiations and
much
aggravation, Miriam Graffe was finally brought to Eretz-Israel. The
Christian
woman had to be paid 60,000 zlotes. M. Mankute, who was involved in
trying to
rescue the child from Poland, wrote the following in a letter dated
September
8, 1946: "the money we gave the Christian peasant woman was
not enough. We
had to snatch the child away." Soon after, he wrote,
Poles came for the
child and when the woman told them she did not know where
the child was now,
the Poles beat her up.

Ziporah and Leyble Veintroyb had hidden in the forest after the massacre of
the
Zaromb Jews. When they could not withstand the hunger any more, they put
their
child in a Christian home. At the end of the war, that child was found
and sent
to Eretz-Israel. However, the peasant who had taken the child took
the mother
to court demanding a huge payment. Ziporah tells the story about
her child in a
letter to the Zaromb Relief Committee, dated August 22,
1946:

"The child, Khava Goldberg, was born in Sterdin, August 20, 1942, a
little
less than a year after the slaughter of the Zaromb Jews. When the
child was
only 4 days old, the killing of the Sterdin Jews began. My husband
and I and
the newborn child managed to run away to the Visoke-Mazovietze
region where
there were still a few small ghettos. But on November 2, 1942,
the Jews of that
area were slaughtered. This time, my husband, I and the baby
succeeded in
running into the forest. The child was then 9 weeks old. The
forest was deep
with snow and it was very difficult for us to remain there
with an infant and
we decided to leave the child near a peasant's hut in a
village by the forest
and, one dark night, that is what we did.

"The peasant raised the child. My husband was killed, but I survived.
When
we were liberated, I tried to take the child back but the peasant did
not want
to let her go. After many efforts, I did manage to get my child. I
kept her
with me for 7 months and then I sent her to Eretz-Israel.

"Even today, the Christians are trying to get the child. Last week, I
was
called to court on this matter. Now I have to pay for the 3 years that
the
peasant and his wife kept my child."

Even the Jewish sacred places have been destroyed. Mindl Altshok tells
that,
after the liberation, there was not a single tombstone left in both
Jewish
cemeteries. The Poles had destroyed them back in 1941.

Those houses in Zaromb which had not been
destroyed – houses built with
Jewish
labor, where Jews worked hard to eke out a living, where Jewish
mothers rocked
their children to sleep - were inhabited by Poles who profited
from the
annihilation of Jewish life.

In the house in which the Ruskelenkas had lived, the Pole Tamashek from
the
village of Kankove, opened a store. The Poles, Shulbodski from Ninaltas,
Dombkoviniaka from Leshnes, Wanda Gashlitzki and Inatchik from Zaromb, Roman
Pisanski and Goldowski from Brevkes were among Poles who took
over Jewish
houses in Zaromb. The Pole Yablanko lives in the cap-maker's
house. In the last
house on the street, near the church, the Pole Gashlitzki
lives and, together
with his youngest daughter and her husband, he opened a
store there. Gashlitzki
had been a shoemaker. When the Germans came into Zaromb, he gave up his trade
and became head of the committee which
liquidated Jewish businesses. Later,
when the Russians came back into Zaromb,
he was put in prison in Lomzshe and
his family was sent to Russia. But, he
was released and his family returned.
Now they all live in a Jewish house in Zarorrib. Their neighbors are the Poles
Ekert, Katiniah, Tcheshek and others.

The few Zaromber who survived the death camps are still wandering from city
to city, from land to land. Only a few succeeded to get to Eretz-Israel or
to
America.

A few Zaromber risked their lives and visited Zaronb and Mianvek where
the
martyrs of Zaromb were slaughtered. They had to run out of Zaromb as soon
as
they got there or the Poles would have murdered them. They relate that
the
field near Mianvek where the martyrs are buried is not fenced in. They
are
asking the Zaromber and Tchizshever "Landsleit" in America to
think
about sending a delegation which would buy that field and the sooner
the better. It is not sure whether the Poles will even allow our martyrs
there to
rest in peace.

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